Warren Manners, aged 38, has become the tenth inmate to die within three months at HMP Parc in Bridgend, which is being run by G4S with claims concerning drug abuse among prisoners. Mr Manners had died on Wednesday and his death joins the previous nine others, four of these fatalities are believed to have been drug-related. While one prison staff member has been arrested in conjunction with drug dealing on the premises, the other nine prisoner deaths will be further investigated in due course by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, and the cause of death will be determined by the coroner’s report.
Aspects of this severe situation have prompted families of the inmates who died to protest, and two MPs have urged the UK Ministry of Justice to take control of the prison. HMP Parc accommodates sex offenders awaiting trial, convicted male adult and young offenders, and is one of the largest category B prisons in the United Kingdom.
The South Wales Police reported that a synthetic opioid called Nitazene had been involved in four of the ten deaths. Additionally, the police identified spice, another synthetic drug, in connection with two out of the four fatalities. Back in March, the prisons and probation ombudsman, Adrian Usher, bluntly urged all prisons to convey to their inmates to dispose of any spice in their possession.
Due to the worsening events at HMP Parc, G4S has come under increasing pressure and scrutiny from the authorities, families of the prisoners, and the general public. There is a growing perception that this Government initiative of outsourcing to the private sector is creating an ongoing series of problems with regards to the treatment of prisoners and the overall management and supervision of prisons
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